PlayStation Meeting 2013: PlayStation 4 is The Future of Gaming

Today is an exciting day for gamers everywhere. As you may have seen live with millions of others across the world, just moments ago we introduced PlayStation 4 (PS4), our next-generation console that will deliver breakthrough gaming experiences for our fans starting this holiday season.

PlayStation 4 is centered on all of you – the gamers. It redefines rich and immersive gameplay with powerful graphics and speed, intelligent personalization, deeply integrated social capabilities, and innovative second-screen features. When we designed PlayStation 4, we focused on building an architecture that will allow the greatest game developers in the industry to push boundaries and dig deep within their imaginations to create the most immersive and unique games for you to enjoy.

The future of PlayStation is all about great games and entertainment, and at PlayStation Meeting 2013, we brought some of the brightest and most creative minds from the development community on stage to unveil the games that will define PS4. A partial initial lineup for PlayStation 4 includes first-party games from Guerilla Games (Killzone: Shadow Fall), Sucker Punch (inFamous Second Son), Evolution Studios (Driveclub), and Japan Studio (Knack), as well as titles from our partners such as Activision/Bungie (Destiny), Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo III), Capcom (Deep Down), and Ubisoft (Watch_Dogs). PlayStation also reinforced its commitment to self-publishing and the independent development community by having Jonathan Blow onstage who gave a sneak peek of his upcoming title The Witness. Finally, the incredible minds at Media Molecule and Quantic Dream gave glimpses of their conceptualization process and the future of gameplay with some remarkable footage. We only scratched the surface at the event, and will have many more exciting titles to come.

With so much amazing content in development for PlayStation 4, we want to give our fans every opportunity to check out virtually any PS4 game when it becomes available. In the future, when a gamer sees a title of interest in PlayStation Store, they can immediately start playing a portion of the actual game.

Our next generation console will change the way you interact with friends while you play. PlayStation 4 lets you instantly share images and videos of your favorite gameplay moments on Facebook with a single press on the DUALSHOCK 4 controller’s “share” button. You can also broadcast while you play in real-time through Ustream, allowing friends to comment or jump into your game in new ways. Be sure to check out the post from Shu Yoshida, WWS President, for his thoughts on DUALSHOCK 4 and the “share” features.

With PlayStation 4 we also want you to access your games quicker than ever before. PS4’s “suspend mode” eliminates the load time on your saved game and allows you to immediately return to where you left off by pressing the power button. PlayStation 4’s background downloading and updating capability also allows you to immediately play digital titles as they download, or update the system when the hardware is powered off.

Leveraging PlayStation Network with Gaikai technology, PS4 will make it easier for you to play your favorite games and access content wherever you are. We see PS Vita as the ultimate companion device for PS4 and it’s our long-term vision to make most PS4 games playable on PS Vita, so you can bring your favorite games from the big-screen TV to your PS Vita over Wi-Fi. We’re also introducing a “PlayStation App” for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices that acts as a second screen, allowing for unique gameplay possibilities such as viewing maps during an adventure game or remotely watching friends play during an epic battle—right from a smartphone or tablet.

With so much to look forward to in 2013, I want to take a moment to thank you for following PlayStation through our incredible journey and allowing us to bring the most advanced hardware, software and networked gaming experiences into millions of homes around the world. We’re excited about this next chapter, and will continue to provide you with more details about PlayStation 4 and the broader PlayStation ecosystem, as we get closer to launch this holiday season.

I wish we could have gotten a look at the console itself, but everything on display looked great. Keep it below $600 (lol) and I’ll be all over it day 1. Killzone already sold me, and I know whatever Naughty Dog and Santa Monica are working on is only going to make it look more desirable. Feel like I’m back in 2006 again, getting excited for the PS3. Bring on PS4!

@19 They ARE mentioning the possibility of being able to live stream every PS1-PS4 game on the thing so I imagine we’ll be seeing a LOT of older RPGs. I’m holding out for some of the late PS2 RPGs that didn’t get much notice because by then PS3 and 360 had been out for a year or two, ones like Ar Tonelico and the like.

Overall I’m not impressed with the specs, I would like to see better specs information. Just saying its a X86 PC architecture with a enhanced GPU means to me its just a mid range spec PC in PS4 clothing. That’s the problem when you have a game developer and not an true system engineer be the lead of your system architecture design.

What about Blu-Ray? Is Sony dropping support already? Is it all online only? Do you know that your most of your costumers have some type of bandwidth cap size?

I’m not sure about it which would be the first time I feel about a PlayStation console, but I will keep my mind open on the PS4 until at least Sony’s E3 press conference. If I hear and see the same thing… its game over.

well, what can I say, I’m impressed, I was under the impression a PS4 wouldn’t be even talked about until 2014, but whatever, as long as the system’s relatively affordable, AND it doesn’t do what Microsoft is talking about doing (i.e completely screwing the used game market by allowing games to be played on one console, and one console only, no letting your friends borrow games or nothing, if your system dies, you’re going to have to buy the game over) But this is the playstation blog, not xbox, I look forward to more about the PS4 to see if it is something worth trying to buy

also, I hope the new Dualshock 4 controller keeps its design, it looks sweet.

@24 I think you are complaining too much, I thought games are about the fun and the things you can do with, not just fancy graphics.. However if you want fancy graphics and senseless gameplay, hey look you can buy a PC..

aside from that LONG LIVE PLAY, now I will just sit and enjoy the moment….

Basically, I loved everything shown and talked about. Except for one thing and unfortunately for me personally it’s a pretty big thing.

Am I to understand PS4 will have no backwards compatibility with PS3 games? This was the biggest problem at Vita’s launch and if it weren’t for the fact that I got a Vita for what I considered a good price ($200 new with a 32Gb memory card) I still wouldn’t have a Vita because even though it plays all my PSP and PS1 games, it still doesn’t play the digital comics I paid for. If comics were basically a deal breaker going from PSP to Vita, how am I supposed to feel about the hundreds of dollars I’ve spent on PSN for digital PS3 content all just turning to wasted money?

PS4 while looking amazing, really needs to be 100% backwards compatible with at least all digital content, meaning PSN games and Full PS3 games. Aside from GT5 and SKYRIM the few disc based games I have I can do without. But for the probably $4-500 I’ve spent on PSN to just turn into useless content and wasted $, I’ll wait till PS4 is affordable like I did with Vita instead of jumping right in like I did with PS3 and PSP.

Congratulations, Sony. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the PS4, but after this presentation I’m going to buy it on day one. The social feature of the console – the streaming, recording and so on – is a thing that I wanted so much and this is now a reality. No more cameras, no more hardwares to do that. It’s a feature of the console. And the graphics… Killzone is perfect. I’m going to be at E3 this year (in name of http://www.ps3brasil.com) and I hope see more (and play it, right? :P).

And just to finish the thought…… This is what I was affraid of at the beginning of this gen when I was so against buying digital content. That it would just becomes useless, wasted money not too far into the future. I got over the fear and jumped in headlong having faith in Sony that their next hardware would be backwards compatible with at least digital PS3 content. Unfortunately now my fears are coming true.

Hopefully I misunderstood this and I’m having this one major disappointment over nothing. Or if I do understand perfectly, then I hope that with all PS4’s raw power, that Sony will take a queue from their Vita launch and feedback, and get PS4 backwards compatible with at least digital PS3 content.

I really hope we will be able to move our PSN content (Plus content included) and you don’t force us to use Gaiki to play PS1,PS2 games. It’s like Remote Play where there is a bit of lag and the video isn’t as clear while being streamed.

I used the beta for several weeks and while it was cool, you still get the feeling of using streamed media. IE: artifacting.

I really wish Sony gave more info on existing data, Plus, and trophies.

OK….couple of things—directed at Jack Tretton or any Playstation rep that may be able to answer:

What kind of backwards compatability will the PS4 have if it is to have any?

Some of the features the PS3 has….will that be included with the PS4 as well (being able to pull up the XMedia Bar or whatever the home menu happens to be while mid game, being able to store music, pics and vids, etc.)?

PSN….will I have the option of keeping my same ID and carrying it over to the PS4?

PSN….is the trophy system gonna stay around for the PS4? If so, will my existing trophy card carry over to the next gen Playstation including all the trophies I’ve gotten on the PS3?

Please tell me that Blu-Ray isn’t an afterthought, the format has really just begun to catch on with folks.

What does the PS4 actually look like, I’m seeing pics of the Dualshock 4, but not the system itself….anywhere?

What’s the pricetag gonna be….if not the exact pricetag at least give me the ballpark? So I can have an idea of how much I need to start putting aside for this thing?

I’m an old-school gamer who does not use any type of social media nor has any desire to. I also don’t want to have to re-buy my entire collection of games so that I can stream them. So how does the PS4 appeal to gamers like me? I saw nothing which appeals to me in any way. It looks like I’ll be keeping my PS3 around for the foreseeable future.